UK CITY OF CULTURE 2021Guidance for Bidding Cities

MINISTERIAL FOREWORD

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Hull: the UK City of Culture for 2017, and - according to Rough Guide - one of the best places to visit in the world. With a year long programme of fantastic cultural events and activities in 2017, supported by £32m of funding from a range of partners, the city is undergoing a major programme of regeneration, with the Council investing £100m in upgrades to the city’s buildings and streets.

The UK City of Culture is more than just a title: it is an opportunity to bring communities together, build local pride, develop new partnerships, and attract tourists from across the UK and beyond. It is an opportunity to celebrate local culture with a programme of events that is ambitious, inclusive, and inspiring. But, most importantly, it is an opportunity to enable significant regeneration in a city, town or area.

Culture has the power to transform communities by making a crucial contribution to the economic and social regeneration of our cities and towns. It attracts and inspires. We have already seen in Hull how cultural investment is transforming the city’s confidence. The opportunities for the next UK City of Culture are as important as ever, with the 2021 award bringing with it significant media coverage on the national and international stage, and an opportunity to showcase local culture to the world.

It is up to you, as bidding cities, towns and places, to set out what the benefits will be to your area. But I would like to see innovative and exciting proposals that set out how the legacy of the UK City of Culture title will continue far beyond 2021.

I hope that your bids will be valuable in their own right - helping to develop partnerships to showcase your great art and culture, and increase access to culture in your area. I look forward to reading them.

Rt Hon Matt HancockMinister for Digital and Culture

INTRODUCTION

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1. This guidance has been produced by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to assist the cities and areas that wish to bid for the opportunity to be designated as UK City of Culture 2021. 2. The guidance sets out the overall aims of the UK City of Culture programme. It then explains the process itself and the associated timescales, and it sets out the information which bids should include and the criteria against which they will be evaluated.

BACKGROUND 3. The UK City of Culture programme was developed by the UK Government to build on the success of Liverpool as European Capital of Culture 2008 by creating a national cultural event spread over a year and focused on a particular city or area. 4. In 2009, following a competitive selection process, Derry-Londonderry was selected as the first UK City of Culture and held the title in 2013. Hull was selected as UK City of Culture in a competitive selection process in 2013, and will hold the title in 2017. 5. UK City of Culture is a UK-wide programme, developed by DCMS in consultation with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The competition process to select the UK City of Culture is managed by the UK Government.

OVERALL AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 7. The overall aim of the UK City of Culture programme is to encourage the use of culture and creativity as a catalyst for regeneration, to promote the development of new partnerships, and to encourage ambition, innovation and inspiration in cultural and creative activity. Cities and areas that bid for the title will need to spell out their own vision for UK City of Culture and how they will use it in making a step change in their area and creating a lasting legacy

8. The UK City of Culture 2021 will need to:

● Deliver a high quality cultural programme that builds and expands on local strengths and assets and reaches a wide variety of audiences over the course of the year;

● Deliver a programme that uses culture and creativity to lead to lasting social regeneration through building engagement, widening participation, supporting cultural diversity and cohesion, contributing to the localism agenda

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and reaching out to sectors of the community who are disenfranchised and isolated;

● Create a demonstrable economic impact from the programme, through investment and innovation in culture and creativity;

● Demonstrate a clear approach to maximising the legacy and evaluating the impacts from being UK City of Culture;

● Present realistic and credible plans for managing, funding and delivering the programme and its legacy.

9. We are therefore seeking bids that:

● Are distinctive and representative of the area – building on what the area

has to offer and its existing assets;● Have strong leadership, management and governance● Are ambitious and stretching, with the potential to create lasting economic

and social regeneration in the area;● Demonstrate cultural and artistic excellence and innovation;● Include and work with a broad range of local, national and international

partners;● Engage a wide range of audiences and participants, especially children

and young people and under-represented groups and communities;● Are realistic, affordable and deliverable. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY CULTURE? 11. Culture is generally taken to include the following areas: arts (including visual arts, literature, music, theatre and dance), architecture, crafts, creative industries, design, heritage, historic environment, museums and galleries, libraries, archives, film, broadcasting and media. We would expect to see a range of these areas included in bids and cultural programmes. In addition, you may also choose to include sport and science, but these should not be major elements of your bid and programme. 12. However, we are not being prescriptive about what constitutes culture and it will be up to you to make the case for which activities are and are not included in your proposed cultural programme. We expect programmes to be able to appeal to a wide range of audiences and to increase participation in cultural activities as well as contributing to economic growth, regeneration, community cohesion, health and well-being.

WHICH AREAS CAN BID? 13. We welcome bids from across the UK. We will adopt a flexible approach to agreeing which areas can bid. What matters is that areas must be able to deliver

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a substantial programme of cultural activity to run throughout 2021 that can demonstrably lead to regeneration in the area concerned. The only areas precluded from bidding are London as a whole or any part of London. (However, this does not prevent London, parts of London or London-based organisations being partners in a bid for an area outside London.) 14. There must be a clear central urban focus to the area. This could be a city or large town, two or more neighbouring cities or towns, or a closely linked set of urban areas. However, part of the programme can be delivered in a wider hinterland. The area that is bidding should have, or be capable of developing, a clear identity and form a cohesive area capable of sustaining a concentrated programme of cultural activities, and any hinterland that is included should be reasonably accessible to visitors and residents across the area. Bids and programmes that are diluted across a wide area will be viewed less favourably than those with a strong central focus.

15. There is no pre-determined minimum size of population or geographical area for areas that wish to bid. However, it is unlikely that a smaller town, with limited capacity and acting on its own, or an area without an existing cultural infrastructure would be able to provide the critical mass for a year-long programme to be successful. While we want to encourage ambition and see the programme as a catalyst for change, the areas that bid will need to demonstrate that they can host events and exhibitions at scale, both indoors and outdoors. If a capital programme is in place to develop the required infrastructure, we will expect to see in the bid a realistic timetable for its delivery.

WHICH ORGANISATIONS CAN BID? 16. We expect bids to be from a partnership for the area. The partnership will need to include the relevant local authorities. There will need to be a lead organisation for information and communication purposes during the competition process, though this does not need to be the local authority. We would also expect to see evidence in the bids of consultation with, and involvement of, a range of other local and community organisations.

FUNDING FOR PROGRAMMES 17. Central Government will provide advice, support and convening power. We do not expect to be able to provide automatically direct national funding from the UK Government specifically for events and initiatives related to UK City of Culture 2021. Rather, the successful city will be expected to bid into existing

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pots. We recognise that this may shape the bids, and there may need to be a phased approach to the programme, dependent on a successful fundraising campaign. We would expect you to align your own local resources and budgets to deliver your programme, and you will need to consider how to make best use of other potential sources of funding and demonstrate in your bid that you have a credible fundraising plan. In particular, we would encourage you to consider, and explain in your bid, how you will seek to develop new sources of funding, for example through philanthropy and relationships with Local Enterprise Partnerships in England and other programmes.

THE PURPOSE OF THE SELECTION PROCESS 18. The selection process is intended to ensure that the best possible bid from across the UK is selected for UK City of Culture 2021. The selection process should lead to the selection and designation of an area that has an ambitious vision for what it will achieve in 2021 and afterwards; but also one that has credible and realistic plans to be able to turn its vision into reality. 19. The process itself will bring wider benefits. Although only one area will be designated for 2021, the process of developing the bids will foster the development of ideas and partnerships that can, and often will, carry on irrespective of whether a bid is successful. We would encourage you to think about how you will build on the process and which elements of your bid you will be able to take forward, even if you are not selected as UK City of Culture 2021.

20. We realise that there are costs associated with developing and submitting a bid. The selection process is intended to strike a balance between allowing all areas the opportunity to bid, providing sufficient information to enable a robust evaluation and ensure that the best bid can be selected, and at the same time being reasonable in what is expected. The two-stage process should ensure that the costs are kept to reasonable levels. In particular, the effort involved in developing detailed elements of the bid will only need to be met by those areas which are shortlisted. The process also means that DCMS, and the independent advisory panel, can devote more effort towards really testing the shortlisted bids in detail. 21. We expect there to be significant publicity associated with the selection process. We will issue press releases on who has registered to bid, on those who have submitted bids and on the results of the shortlisting and final selection processes. All the bids will be listed on the DCMS website (with links to their respective bid website if one exists). On the basis of past experience, bids are also likely to receive significant local publicity.

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22. We will expect all those bidding to use the candidate city version of the UK City of Culture logo, rather than developing your own branding. This will help you to publicise and gain support for your bid and identify you as taking part in a national competition. We will expect the eventual winner to use and personalise the UK City of Culture logo to promote themselves in the run up to and during 2021. Consistent use of the UK City of Culture logos during the competition and through to the end of 2021 will help to establish and maintain the identity of the UK City of Culture initiative and your part in it, as well as saving you money on logo development and branding.

PROCESS AND TIMESCALES

23. The process of bidding and assessment is described below, with a summary of the overall process set out in Table 1.

How to bid 24. If you wish to submit a bid for UK City of Culture 2021, you must register by 28 February 2017 by emailing ukcityofculture2021@culture.gov.uk, providing contact details for the bid team and basic information about the area covered by the bid. This information will allow us to contact you quickly if we need to; and it will assist us in planning the assessment phase of the process. 25. The formal bidding process will have two stages. The assessment criteria used for both stages of the competition is set out in Table 2. 26. First, an initial bid must be submitted by 28 April 2017. The requirements for this bid are set out in Annex A. 27. Second, a full and final bid will need to be submitted by 29 September 2017. Only areas that are shortlisted on the basis of their initial bids will be invited to submit a full and final bid. 28. You will need to be prepared to answer a series of clarification questions on your initial bid, based on the assessment by the DCMS project team. These will need to be answered in writing and, if necessary, in meetings that we will seek to organise during May 2017. The answers to these clarification questions will be treated as part of the initial bid for the purposes of assessment. 30. As part of the initial bid you may be given the opportunity to give a presentation to the Independent Advisory Panel in May 2017, dependent upon the number of applications received. If your bid is shortlisted, you will be invited to host a visit from members of the Independent Advisory Panel, likely to be during October 2017.

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31. We anticipate that the announcement of the UK City of Culture 2021 will take place in Hull in December 2017.

Assessment of bids 32. The shortlisting process for both stages of the competition will be based on the assessment criteria set out in Table 2. The assessment will be carried out by the Independent Advisory Panel with support from the DCMS project team. It will be based on the information set out in the relevant bid document and supplemented where necessary by the responses to the clarification questions which may be asked. 33. The Panel will advise the Minister for Culture, who will make the final decision at both the shortlisting and final stages. 34. Feedback will be provided on all bids following the announcement of the shortlist.

Support for bids 35. It is the responsibility of each area to develop its own bid using its own resources and those of its partners. There is no national funding available to pay for the costs of bidding. 36. The organisations supporting the UK City of Culture programme have indicated their willingness to support the bidding process, but they will need to operate in an even-handed way and will not be able to make a firm or exclusive commitment to any one city or area. You can expect to receive consistent, strategic advice from these organisations. Further into the process, we would expect them to be entering into more detailed negotiations with cities and areas.

Table 1: Overall competition process and timetable

Date / Month Assessment Process Requirement from bidders

28 February 2017 Deadline for registration

28 April 2017 Deadline for submission of initial bids

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May - June 2017 - Initial assessment of bids

- Development of clarification questions

- Presentations from bidders (tbc)

- Further assessment and advice to Minister on bids

- Decision on shortlist

- Feedback on initial bids

Responses to clarification questions

July 2017 Further guidance on full and final bids issued

29 September 2017 Deadline for submission of full and final bids

October 2017 - Initial assessment of bids

- Development of clarification questions

- Visits to shortlisted cities/towns

Responses to clarification questions

Host visit from Independent Advisory Panel member(s) and DCMS Project Team

November 2017 - Further assessment of bids, and advice to Minister

- Final decision on winner

December 2017 - Announcement of winner

- Feedback on final bids

Table 2: Assessment Criteria

Element Requirement Assessment Criteria and Indicative Scores

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PART A: SUMMARYOne page summary of your bid

None. For information only

PART B: VISION, PROGRAMME AND IMPACTS

Total maximum score: 100

1. Your Area 1. Describe the geographical area covered by the bid and explain why this area makes sense as UK City of Culture.

2. Why does your area need to see the sort of regeneration that could result from being UK City of Culture?

3. Why is culture a key mechanism for achieving regeneration in your area?

· Is the chosen area credible as host of a focused, year-long programme of cultural events?· Does the area have a clear identity, or the potential to establish one?· Does the bid demonstrate why the area needs to be UK City of Culture and how it could benefit from it?

Maximum score: 5

2. Overall Vision

4. What is your overall vision for a UK City of Culture programme in your area?

5. What is distinctive about your vision? What differentiates it from the visions which could be put forward by potential bids from other areas?

6. What step changes will UK City of Culture help you to achieve in your area (please describe both the baseline position and the intended changes).

7. What are the main themes and components of your UK City of Culture programme?

[Please include as Appendix

· Is there a strong, clear vision for the UK City of Culture programme and the impact it would have on the area?· Are the vision and programme distinctive and clearly linked to the nature and character of the area?· Are the intended step change impacts significant and credible compared to the baselines?· Do the themes and components provide sufficient scope for a varied programme with broad appeal to a wide range of audiences?

Maximum score: 15

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A to your bid an indicative outline programme for 2021 (and the lead-up period if you wish). This need be no longer than 2 pages.]

3. Cultural and Artistic Strengths

8. What are the main cultural assets in your area that you will be building on and how will you maximise your existing assets?

9. What are the main gaps, weaknesses and under-developed opportunities in your cultural offer and how will you use UK City of Culture to address these?

10. What will be distinctive and innovative about your UK City of Culture programme?

11. Which local, national and international cultural organisations, networks and partnerships will be involved in delivering your programme?

12. Which local, national and international artists and cultural practitioners will be invited to participate in your programme?

13. How will you ensure the programme delivers cultural excellence?

14. How will you ensure you provide diversity - of all kinds - in your cultural and artistic programme for UK City of Culture?

· Are the cultural foundations of the bid clear, credible and linked to the programme?· How well does the programme use existing cultural assets, facilities and partnerships?· Does the outline programme have significant distinctive elements across a range of arts forms and cultural activities?· Has the bid identified credible potential contributors of national or international standing?· Are the plans for ensuring cultural excellence and diversity credible and deliverable?· Are the plans for using digital technology and innovation in the programme credible and deliverable?

Maximum score: 25

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15. How will you use digital technology and innovation in your cultural and artistic programme for UK City of Culture?

4. Social Impacts

16. What role does cultural activity currently play in delivering regeneration, community cohesion, health and well-being in your area?

17. How will your UK City of Culture programme contribute to regeneration, community cohesion, health and well-being in your area?

18. What is the baseline position and how will you encourage and extend engagement and participation in cultural activities amongst different groups and communities in your area?

19. How will you maximise participation and access through digital technologies, especially for young people?

20. How will you ensure that the UK City of Culture programme is accessible to all groups in society?

· Is the bid building on a demonstrable track record of achievement in using culture to deliver regeneration, community cohesion, health and well-being?· Will the programme make a measurable impact on regeneration, community cohesion, health and well-being in the area?· What is the intended impact of the programme on engagement and participation overall and amongst different groups and communities and are the plans for achieving this credible and deliverable?· How effective and realistic are the aspirations for engaging with young people?· Is there a clear plan to ensure accessibility of cultural activities to all audiences, including disabled people, older people, and people from LGBT and BME groups?

Maximum score: 15

5. Economic 21. What is the current · Does the current

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Impacts nature and strength of the cultural and creative sectors in your area?

22. How will being UK City of Culture help to boost these sectors?

23. How will your UK City of Culture programme increase engagement in education, training and employment, particularly among young people?

24. How will being UK City of Culture contribute to promoting economic growth and regeneration in your area?

[Please include as Appendix B to your bid a summary of the current state of your cultural and creative sectors.]

cultural and creative economy in the area provide a sufficient base on which to build?· Is it clear what impact UK City of Culture would have on the cultural and creative sectors in the area and are the estimates of impact credible?· Are the plans for using the programme to increase engagement in education, training and employment realistic and achievable?· Is it clear how UK City of Culture would contribute to overall economic growth in the area and is the anticipated impact credible and deliverable?

Maximum score: 30

6. Tourism Impacts

25. How would being UK City of Culture build on and link to current tourism activity, offer and marketing in your area?

26. What boost to your visitor economy do you envisage in 2021 and in subsequent years, in terms of additional visits and spend, as a result of being UK City of Culture?

27. How will you ensure you maximise the net impact on your tourism and visitor economy as a

· Is it clear how the visitor economy would be boosted in 2021 and are the estimated impacts realistic?· Is it clear how UK City of Culture would be used to raise the profile of the area and market it to visitors?· Are the plans for managing visitors, ensuring sufficient capacity and meeting access and other requirements credible and

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result of being UK City of Culture?

28. How will you ensure that your tourism and transport infrastructure has the capacity to deal with visitors to your area and can meet the access and other requirements of all visitors?

[Please include as Appendix C to your bid a summary of the current state of your visitor economy.]

deliverable?Maximum score: 10

PART C: DELIVERY AND CAPACITY Total maximum score: 100

1. Leadership, management and governance

1. Who is leading your bid?2. Who else is involved in

developing and supporting the bid?

3. How will the development and delivery of your UK City of Culture programme be managed?

4. What would be the role of each of the bid partners you have identified?

5. How are local people, groups and communities being consulted about the bid?

[Please include as Appendix D to your bid a list of all the organisations and individuals who have been involved in the development of the bid and indicate their role in the development.]

· Is there clear evidence of a wide range of organisations and individuals supporting and contributing to the bid?· Is there a process in place for involving and consulting local people, groups and communities?· How strong does the support for the bid appear to be?· Are there clear management and governance arrangements?· Has the process for developing the programme been thought through clearly?· Is it clear how tensions and disagreements between partners will be managed?

Maximum score: 15

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2. Track record

6. What previous track record in organising and delivering significant programmes of cultural events do you and your partners have (please give examples indicating the nature, duration and approximate cost of events/activities)?

7. How have you used what you have learned from this track record in developing your UK City of Culture bid?

[Please include as Appendix E to your bid a list of past events and activities that have been managed by you and your partners over the last 5 years.]

· How strong is the track record in delivering significant programmes of events?· How wide-ranging is this experience?· How recent is this experience?· Has the bid team drawn on lessons from major events either in their area or elsewhere?

Maximum score: 15

3. Funding and Budget

8. How much do you expect it to cost to deliver your proposed programme?

9. How much additional funding do you expect to require over and above existing levels of support for culture in your area?

10. Where do you expect to get this funding from and how much do you expect to raise from each source (e.g. public bodies, individual and corporate sponsorship and donations, sales revenue for events)?

11. What commitments have you already secured for funding for your UK City

· How realistic are the cost estimates?· How realistic are the funding plans and aspirations?· Is there a credible fundraising plan?· What evidence is there of commitment to meet the funding gap and act as guarantor?

Maximum score: 20

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of Culture programme?12. Who would act as

financial guarantor for your UK City of Culture programme?

[Please include as Appendix F to your bid an outline budget for the programme/year.]

4.

Partnerships13. What new funding and

delivery partnerships do you envisage building for UK City of Culture?

14. How will you work with national organisations?

· Are the roles envisaged for new partners and potential funders realistic and deliverable?· Are the plans for working with national organisations credible?

Maximum score: 10

5. Risk Assessment

15. What do you see as the main risks to the successful delivery of your programme and vision?

16. What mitigation measures would you put in place to limit these risks?

· Have the key risks been identified?· Are the proposed mitigation measures realistic and credible?

Maximum score: 10

6. Legacy 17. How will you ensure that being UK City of Culture in 2021 leaves a lasting legacy for your area?

18. What will be the main cultural, social and economic elements of the legacy from being UK City of Culture 2021?

19. How will you retain and re-use the expertise from

· Have the main issues of legacy been thought through and how have they been built into the planning?· How realistic are the plans and expectations for the legacy?

Maximum score: 20

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managing a successful UK City of Culture programme in future years?

20. How will you maintain and develop the funding and delivery partnerships established for UK City of Culture in future years?

21. How will you ensure continued cultural engagement with groups and communities who typically engage less with cultural activities?

7. Learning and evaluation

22. How will you evaluate the impact of UK City of Culture 2021 and measure whether you have achieved the step changes described in section B2 above?

23. How will you measure and analyse engagement amongst all groups and communities?

24. How will you share your learning from the planning, delivery and evaluation processes?

· Have the requirements of evaluation and the associated costs been thought through and incorporated into the funding and delivery plans?· How realistic and effective are the proposals for sharing learning?

Maximum score: 10

Please remember to include Appendices A to F with your bid

ANNEX A

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INITIAL BID REQUIREMENTS 1. This Annex sets out the requirements for initial bids for UK City of Culture 2021 and explains how they will be assessed in the shortlisting process.

REQUIREMENTS AND PARAMETERS Content

2. We are seeking bids that offer: ● A high quality cultural programme that builds and expands on local strengths

and assets and reaches a wide variety of audiences over the course of the year;

● A programme that uses culture and creativity to lead to lasting social regeneration through building engagement, widening participation, supporting cultural diversity and cohesion, and contributing to the Big Society;

● A demonstrable economic impact from the programme, through investment and innovation in culture and creativity;

● A clear approach to maximising the legacy and evaluating the impact from being UK City of Culture;

● Realistic and credible plans for managing, funding and delivering the programme and its legacy.

3. Bids should follow the structure set out in Table 2 on page 10, providing information which responds to the questions and enables the bid to be assessed against the criteria, as clearly and concisely as possible.

Format 4. The following guidelines must be followed: ● Bids must be no longer than 30 A4 pages in length (excluding the appendices

requested in Table 2).

● Bids must be written in clear English in no smaller than 10-pitch font.

● Bids may include pictures and graphics to enhance the material, but these will be included as part of the page limit.

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5. We are keen to see costs kept to the minimum necessary. For initial bids we would urge you not to develop DVDs or other multi-media presentations of the bid. It should be emphasised that the assessment criteria relate to the content of bids, not their form of presentation.

Submitting the bid 6. It is expected that bids will be submitted electronically to ukcityofculture2021@culture.gov.uk. The deadline for submission of bids will be midnight on 28 April 2017. It is in the discretion of DCMS whether any bids received after this deadline would be accepted for assessment. 7. Bids may be supplemented and clarified after the deadline only in response to a question raised by DCMS or the Independent Advisory Panel (i.e. you cannot volunteer additional material after the deadline).

ASSESSMENT PROCESS 8. All bids will be assessed according to the criteria set out in Table 2. Assessments will be based on the written bids as submitted by 28 April 2017 and (if appropriate) by the responses to the clarification questions. 9. It is important to stress that a bid must achieve a high overall score and a strong score for both Part B (vision, programme and impacts) and Part C (delivery and capacity) in order to be shortlisted. However, the scores will be indicative only and will not be binding on the Independent Advisory Panel or the Minister for Culture. 10. At this stage, we envisage that around four bids will be shortlisted. However, this will depend on the number and quality of the bids we receive, the views of the Independent Advisory Panel and the final decision of the Minister for Culture. 11. Feedback will be provided on all bids after the shortlisting decision has been announced.

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